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The Europeanization of Holocaust and World War II Memory in Poland – General Remarks1

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The Europeanization of Holocaust and World War II Memory in Poland – General Remarks1 DOI: 10.33067/SE.2.2019.1 Elisabeth Wassermann* The Europeanization of Holocaust and World War II Memory in Poland – General Remarks1 Abstract The article presents a summary of the refl ections and research of the author (and the wider research team) on the Europeanization of heritage and memory in Holocaust and World War II museums, exhibitions and educational projects in Poland and gives a theoretical overview on the issue. In how far does the Polish way of commemoration refl ect the postulates of academic research in this fi eld? Currently in Europe, the trend in historical museums shifts from the sheer presentation of the past towards a more open format, including references to human rights, tolerance and non-discrimination. Furthermore, European museology develops towards being a platform of democratic discussion and the negotiation of meanings. What can be the potential role of Polish Holocaust and World War II museums? And how are these postulates in practice realized in cultural institutions and museums dealing with one of the greatest disasters in modern history? The research sample included the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum, the State Museum at Majdanek, the Home Army Museum in Kraków, the Ulma Family Museum of Poles Saving Jews in World War II in Markowa and a number of other institutions in Poland. Key words: Europeanization, Heritage, Memory, War Museums, Holocaust * Elisabeth Wassermann – Jagiellonian University, e-mail: el.wassermann@gmail. com, ORCID: 0000-0001-9640-2765. 1 The article is a result of the project “The Europeanization of realms of memory and the invention of a common European heritage” (2013–2019) which was funded by the National Science Centre on the basis of allocation decision DEC-2013/08/M/HS6/00041. 9 Studia Europejskie – Studies in European Affairs, 2/2019 In the current context of euro-scepticism and nationalist tendencies in a number of EU member states, the question of Europeanization of memo- ry and heritage might be considered a diffi cult and even provocative matter. Currently the political trend goes, especially in the Visegrad countries, rather towards a strong national identity and a clear distinction between “us, the nation” and “them, the EU” as a foreign Other with a limited intersection of mainly economic matters. On the other hand, European societies are charac- terized by a huge diversity and the “presence of complementary or alterna- tive heritages and memories”,2 which, amongst others, stems from the fact that the past is experienced from different points of view and with different emotions. Thus the question, if and in how far heritage presented in muse- ums – which are signifi cant identity-forming institutions3 – can be considered “Europeanized”, is specifi cally important, as “social constructions of the past created from the point of view of the present are often made into a political and ideological argument”.4 Thus, a common framework seems all the more to be a helpful tool. Europeanization For the needs of the project “The Europeanization of realms of memory”, Europeanization of heritage has been defi ned as a three-stage “multidimen- sional process of transformation of European societies under the infl uence of European integration”, including: (a) changes arising from political pres- sure, (b) transnational exchanges and the horizontal diffusion of ideas re- lated to continuous encounters of people, and (c) the reshaping of collective and individual identities.5 This is a multidirectional process including all levels of selection and interpretation of heritage (local, regional, nation- al and inter-state). In this respect, European identity, according to Mach, should rather not be seen as an aggregation of events or persons, that are per- 2 K. Kowalski, B. Törnquist-Plewa, Heritage and Memory in a Changing Europe. Introductory Remarks, in: The Europeanization of Heritage and Memories in Poland and Sweden, eds. K. Kowalski, B. Törnquist-Plewa, Jagiellonian University Press, Kra- ków 2016, p. 15. 3 Ł. Piekarska-Duraj, Democratization as an Aspect of Heritage Europeanization. The Museum Triangle, in: The Europeanization of Heritage and Memories in Poland and Swe- den, eds. K. Kowalski, B. Törnquist-Plewa, Jagiellonian University Press, Kraków 2016, p. 33. 4 Z. Mach, Democratization and the Struggle for the Recognition of Memory and Heritage in the European Frame of Reference, in: The Europeanization of Heritage and Memories in Poland and Sweden, eds. K. Kowalski, B. Törnquist-Plewa, Jagiellonian Uni- versity Press, Kraków 2016, p. 266. 5 K. Kowalski, B. Törnquist-Plewa, op. cit., pp. 21–22. 10 E. Wassermann, The Europeanization of Holocaust and... ceived as European, but as a “frame of reference [and] platform of dialogue and negotiation”,6 where different regional and national interpretations and viewpoints may be exchanged and discussed. And this is where museums and NGOs come into the picture. Potentially, they can play a meaningful role as democratic platforms, where meanings can be negotiated.7 Such institu- tions, again, potentially, “are much more than custodians of the past: they also should be seen as interpreters who want to have their say when various identities get constructed”.8 Museums therefore support the formation of identities and are thus defi nitely relevant in the context of Europeanization. Thus, the question arises, how institutions like museums, which transmit knowledge, viewpoints and (in many cases) values, present Europe’s fun- damental ideas: human rights, the rule of law, tolerance, democracy and pluralism. Europeanization according to this concept can take place both as top-down (politics of memory conducted by states and state-controlled institutions) and bottom-up initiatives (local or regional institutions which are not state-own or controlled).9 The Potential Role of Holocaust and World War II Museums in Poland in the Europeanization Process Having said this, the signifi cance of Holocaust and World War II museums in this respect becomes clear: after all, they tackle a very sensitive and, despite the huge time distance to the events in question, very meaningful issue. As Aline Sierp notes, still today “the divergent interpretations of this particular period in history continue to play a fundamental role in all European countries when dis- cussing the basic ideas and values that should guide contemporary politics and society”.10 Other scholars have called the Holocaust one of “Europe’s found- ing myths” (Leggewie)11 and “the paradigmatic liéu de memoire of Europe” (Diner).12 Thus, as Leggewie pledges, the reconciliation of competing memories of the Holocaust is a very important challenge for what is meant to be a Euro- pean memory.13 Although a strictly common memory with clear-cut contents is 6 Z. Mach, op. cit., p. 266. 7 Ł. Piekarska-Duraj, op. cit., p. 35. 8 Ł. Piekarska-Duraj, B. Törnquist-Plewa, Europeanization in Regional Museums? Examples from Sweden and Poland, “Politeja”, no. 52(1)/2018, p. 26. 9 Ibidem, p. 22. 10 A. Sierp, History, Memory, and Trans-European Identity. Unifying Divisions, New York–London 2014, p. 2-2. 11 C. Leggewie, Seven Circles of European Memory, “Eurozine” 2010. 12 D. Diner, Gegenläufi ge Gedächtnisse. Über Geltung und Wirkung des Holocaust, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2007, p. 39. 13 C. Leggewie, op. cit. 11 Studia Europejskie – Studies in European Affairs, 2/2019 neither reasonably achievable nor necessarily desired,14 scholars agree on the tremendous importance of Holocaust memory in contemporary Europe. Since the growing acknowledgment of historical trauma in European culture in the 1980s and 1990s, as Aleida Assmann writes, victim perspectives are more and more integrated into the collective identity forming process.15 Although national Holocaust commemoration traditions and common narratives about World War II and the Holocaust may differ in their focus and perspective, it is necessary “that the memory of the Holocaust be developed and represented in the European frame of reference, as a common European heritage and the commemoration of the darkest moment in a common European history”.16 As the Holocaust was part of World War II and would be unthinkable in peace times, the narrative of World War II as a whole cannot be omitted in this con- text. In this regard, Poland is a very interesting, if not the most interesting,case in Europe. All the major death camps run by the Nazi German authorities during World War II were situated on German-occupied Polish soil. Thus, the Polish gentile population was inevitably a close eye-witness of the mass murder of the European Jewry. Over 90% of the pre-war Polish Jews perished during the Holocaust, leaving post-war communist Poland an ethnically al- most entirely homogenous state. Overall, Poland lost more than six million of its pre-war population (eth- nic Poles, Jews and other minorities with Polish citizenship).17 Since the late 1980’s, a variety of important nation-wide debates about Polish-Jewish rela- tions during the war have occupied the Polish public discourse. These debates, with the discourse on the Jedwabne massacre in 200118 as the most important one, have always been emotionally loaded and often full of misunderstand- 14 According to Aleida Assmann, collective identities require a common goal for the future and common reference points in the past (see: A. Assmann, Europe: A Community of Memo- ry? Twentieth Annual Lecture of the GHI, November 16, 2006, “GHI Bulletin”, no. 40/Spring 2007, p. 12). This however does not impose the need to agree upon common contents. 15 Ibidem, pp. 11–12. 16 Z. Mach, Some Remarks on Memory and Heritage in Europe, “Politeja”, no. 1(52)/2018, p. 192. 17 N. Davies, Heart of Europe. The Past in Poland’s present, Oxford University Press, New York 2001, p. 55. 18 The debate had been caused by the publication of J.T. Gross’ book Neighbours. The Destruction of the Jewish Community in Jedwabne, Poland, Princeton 2001, where the author writes about the responsibility of the local Polish townspeople of Jedwabne (Eastern Poland) for the mass murder of the Jewish population of the village in July 1941.
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